This invention is to provide a slide adjustment and locking arrangement for a boat seat for slidably adjusting the seat fore and aft. It is primarily aimed for use with a low profile boat seat, i.e., where the boat seat rests virtually directly on the boat deck or on a raised portion of the boat deck but might find use with a pedestal mounted or raised boat seat.
The most pertinent prior art that applicant is presently aware of appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,328 by Richard J. Garelick and U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,887 by Garelick and Pilosi and the references cited therein.
The ""328 patent utilizes a pair of slidably engaged plate members for fore and aft adjustment with the boat seat attached to an upper plate member and a lower plate member anchored in some fashion to the boat deck For locking, a handle at the end of a laterally or sidewise extending threaded rod, which is threadably engaged in the side of one of the plate members, is turned to thread the rod into the plate member to force the opposite edges of the engaged plate members into snug frictional engagement to hold the two plate members together to prevent them from sliding with respect to one another. While successful, this device was somewhat awkward to use and did not have a solid anti-slide locking arrangement. The ""328 patent also has a spring-biased lever arm for operating a locking pin for locking the seat against rotation or swiveling after it has been adjusted to the desired facing or direction.
The ""887 patent also has similar slidably engaged members for adjusting the seat fore and aft. An edge of one of the members has a series of recesses for receiving teeth on a rod mounted in a track of one of the slidably engaged members. A spring biases the rod rotatably so that the teeth engage the recesses to lock the members together. An arm or handle extending outward and below the slide assembly is pushed (or pulled) to move or rotate the rod against the spring bias to disengage the teeth from the recesses to unlock the slide so that the seat can be slidably adjusted fore and aft. The slide assembly in both the ""328 and the ""887 patents are made for a specific style and dimensioned boat seat (usually raised or pedestal mounted boat seats) and are not adaptable for use with boat seats of various sizes or dimensions, particularly boat seats of different widths which are usually deck-mounted seats on speed boats or bass fishing boats or the like. Also, similar to the ""328 patent, in the ""887 patent manipulating the handle for unlocking the sliding members is somewhat cumbersome and is not convenient to use with a low profile or deck mounted seat.
As the word xe2x80x9ctandemxe2x80x9d in the title implies, this lockable slide for boat seat has two separate sets of slidably engaged members which are spaced laterally from one another under the boat seat. The upper member of each set is attached to the underside of the boat seat and is slidingly engaged with the lower member which is attached to the underlying support, usually the boat deck. The lower member of each set has inwardly extending slots defining a horizontal track and the other member of each set has outwardly extending edges or lips for slidably engaging the tracks of the lower member to permit the boat seat to be slidably adjusted fore and aft as desired. In at least one of the sets the lower member has an upstanding side wall with detent holes and the other member has a pin or rod slidably engaged in openings in opposite side walls of the member for engaging the detent holes to lock the two members against further sliding adjustment. A resilient member urges the pin into engagement with the detent openings. A lever arm which is engaged with the locking pin has a handle extending out the front end of the upper member by which the lever arm is movable in opposition to the urging of the resilient member to slidably disengage the pin from the detent opening to permit the seat to be slidably adjusted fore and aft.
The members of each set are metal extrusions, preferably aluminum, which can be made of any length as desired to accommodate boat seats of different depth, i.e., front to back dimension. Also, the sets can be mounted at any spacing necessary to accommodate the width dimension of a boat seat. Further, if needed, the locking feature can be incorporated into both sets of slidable members and the handles of the lever arms can be attached together so that they will operate in unison. A feature of this design is that it only takes a relatively short throw or motion of the handle of the lever arm to disengage the locking mechanism to permit the seat to be slidably adjusted. Also, the lever arm handle in front is at a somewhat more convenient location than a handle or knob extending outward from a side of the seat.